Defense Articles

Experiencing Alaska adventure travel is a must for everyone and, fortunately, is a fairly affordable vacation choice. In addition to the magnificent beauty of the area, many people come to Alaska for hiking, hunting, fishing and so many other exciting outdoor activities. With so many thrilling activities, it is no wonder adventure travelers desire to come to this beautiful part of America.

One of the great aspects of Alaska adventure travel is the opportunity to travel to a variety of destinations within the state and see everything Alaska has to offer, including Hubbard Glacier, Fairbanks and so many more equally beautiful regions. When booking an Alaska adventure travel vacation, you can rest assured that you will certainly see unique destinations and beautiful scenery. An Alaskan cruise is another option for added adventure in which you can take your trip to another level and see all of the diversity Alaska has to offer.

Some of the activities you may want to try include hiking in the Denali National Park or mountaineering in the beautiful McKinley Mountain. Actually, many adventurists have chosen to try an entire month of mountaineering to reach the top of Mount McKinley. This will surely be a lifetime experience for anyone up for the adventure. It surely doesn’t stop here, though.

An Alaskan adventure vacation could also take you to the southeast area of Alaska where you can experience the mountainous region close to Anchorage. Here, you can partake in hiking, mountaineering, backpacking, fishing and even kayaking. To the west of this region, you will find the wild Aleutians where you may have the opportunity to see puffins and sea otters. If you are seeking something slightly less “untamed,” try the Clark National Park where you will find millions of acres of beautiful wilderness.

Quite possibly, the most unique region of Alaska is in the northern area where you can discover the history and culture of the natives. You could also raft in the Yukon River or pan for gold in Fairbanks. For those seeking even more adventure, you could always try crossing the Arctic Circle or drive up the Dalton Highway to the most northern point of Alaska.

On the other hand, don’t leave out southern Alaska when it comes to adventure opportunities. The southern parts of Alaska offer travelers the opportunity to kayak off the coast, view infamous brown bears, see glaciers and rain forests and even trek in some of the state’s mountain ranges. With so much to offer tourists, it should be no surprise that Alaska adventure travel is one of the most popular adventure holidays!

Some people like animals, and some are especially fond of the real exotic ones. Exotic animals are those not usually made as a pet. They are usually found in jungles, forests, and the wild. Therefore, you have to consider it seriously before decided to have one at home. And now that you’re sure that you want to be an exotic pet owner, the following tips might be really useful for you.

Choosing the Best Exotic Pets for You

The first thing you need to do is choosing what exotic pet is best for you. When choosing them, it is important to know the reasons for owning one and the responsibilities needed for keeping one. You should have a good knowledge of a particular kind of pet before buying, else, the purchase or adoption could end in disastrous results. You should also know what your motivation is to choose and exotic pet, because it involves a continuous commitment.

Don’t forget to consider their adult size, and it is important to know the sociability of a particular exotic pet and to match it to your preference, whether you want a pet that needs much of your attention or one that would best live if left alone in its dwelling.

The point is, the best exotic pet for you is one that you can keep, find as much information as you can before you decide which best for you.

Best Places to Look for Exotic Pets

Now that you’ve decided which exotic pet is best for you, you need to find out where you can get it. Since they are special pets, you can’t buy them in a common pet shop or similar place. These are some places where you can get one.

The easiest way is by checking out the internet. Many exotic pet shops put their store online to get more customers. But beside that, you can also scout the specialty pet shops or veterinarian within you area. They might have one or two. If, unfortunately they don’t have what you’re looking for, they might know someone else who does. Another interesting option to get an exotic pet is by joining on exotic pet auction. This could be a wise move, because for sure, you are going to see lots of wonderful species there.

Steps in Acquiring an Exotic Pet License

Suppose you’ve got yours now. What’s next? Acquire a license for your exotic pet. It’s optional, though, depends on the local government in your area. But some local governments require people, who intend to take care of these exotic pets within their yards or homes, to secure a license. For one, in Illinois, it is illegal to own and take care of an exotic animal. In Georgia, you can take certain species of a skunk as pet without a permit.

But as a precaution, here are the steps you should do the moment you intend to take them home.

First, you need to look for a listing of pets considered as exotic within your area, then check your local laws and see if there is a rule against owning exotic pets. If it’s allowed to own exotic pets as long as they have an exotic pet license, then you have no choice but to comply and process the necessary papers. You should also see if there is any vaccines or removal of body parts like teeth is required because some exotic pets can be harmful, and some local state laws require owners to do something like these in order to protect the other people within the community. After making sure that you have all the papers and the requirements met and ready, you are now ready to make a trip to your local government office to file and secure the permit with them.

Good luck, and have fun with your exotic pet!

A machine tool may be designed and built to maintain a particular tolerance, but wear and temperature changes will affect its capability to maintain factory specs.

Hamilton-Sundstrand, a manufacturer of aerospace fuel handling systems, auxiliary power units (APUs), and wing flap actuation systems, ensures its machines, both old and new, can handle tight-tolerance parts by using machine-tool calibration and inprocess probing technologies.

The company’s Grand Junction, CO plant specializes in machining complex housings, forgings, and other components. Most parts require four- and five-axis CNC equipment to produce, and typical aerospace tolerances of 0.001″ (0.03 mm) true position, 0.0005″ (0.013 mm) diameter, and surface profile of 0.002″ (0.06 mm) apply. Machining is done using many machines that transferred into the plant in 1985, along with new equipment purchased annually.

The company gets the most out of all its machines by monitoring its manufacturing processes, machine tool performance, and product quality. The program includes both consistent machine tool maintenance and in-process part probing using technology developed by Renishaw Inc. (Hoffman Estates, IL).

Parts made by the air-inlet cell provide a good example. The cell produces air inlets for APUs, and other components for aircraft environmental systems. The air-inlet part family is processed with multiple lathe, machining center, and grinding operations.

One specific horizontal machining center operation generates two machined bores to 0.001″ concentricity, regardless of feature size (RFS). These features are difficult because the two bores are dimensioned from a datum bore previously machined on a lathe. The datum bore is on the backside of the part, nearly 12″ (305 mm) away along the Z-axis.

One of the two bores, a liner bore, is more than 4″ (102 mm) long, with a total tolerance of 0.0007″ (0.018 mm). The second is a 5″ (127-mm) diam bore with 0.001″ total tolerance. It has six vertical slots that create a severe interrupted cut.

Chipmaking doesn’t begin on the cell’s Kearney & Trecker HMC until a Renishaw MP3 probe aligns the fixture and part to the machine’s axis system. The probing program automatically downloads fixture offsets to the machine CNC, aligning the workpiece in all three axes. All peripheral features are machined in a 20-minute sequence.

To compensate for expansion that occurs during machining, the machine probes the centerline of the part a second time before cutting the liner bore and the interrupted bore. This step recalibrates all machine axes to the operating temperature of the machine tool.

Probing routines are defined internal to the CNC program to ensure minimal probing cycle time. Each probe cycle takes less than two minutes and minimizes costly rework or even scrap.

Personnel also regularly monitor all the company’s CNC machines using Renishaw’s QC1O ballbar. At the first sign of nonconforming parts, the machinist sets up and conducts a ballbar diagnostic test. The test checks 14 different geometric parameters in less than 20 minutes. The ballbar tracks machine movement to +/-0.5 (mu)m, and has a resolution of 0.1 (mu)m. Servo mismatch, linear compensation, squareness, and backlash errors are easily identified and corrected by maintenance personnel.

The ballbar also helps maintenance personnel speed troubleshooting, and the periodic checks reduce unscheduled downtime by tracking trends in machine performance. Problems can be identified before a machine tool goes down, allowing for scheduled repairs rather than production crises.

But ballbar monitoring doesn’t provide all the information necessary for in-depth machine evaluation and calibration. Hamilton-Sundstrand also uses a Renishaw ML10 laser calibration system to precisely evaluate linear and angular movement along a machine axis, and to measure, adjust, and verify pitch and yaw errors.

The company has developed such a high level of confidence in the ballbar and laser systems that test requirements are written into machine buy-off cycles for every purchase order for new equipment. All new machining center purchases include spindle probing as a must-have option. Circle 224.

Futurists are having field days speculating on what globalization means economically, politically, and culturally for various nations and regions of the world. Fortunately, a new metaphor for globalization’s impact-”The World Is Flat”-doesn’t apply to flight plans. The reality is tough enough for commercial aviation. Globalization is transforming travel demands and expectations, bringing sweeping changes in airline operations, aircraft design, and aircraft manufacturing.

The dot-corn wiring of the world played a crucial role in bringing all portions of the world closer, facilitating and speeding trends in global sourcing. Many of those new business relationships were still worked out in face-to-face negotiations, however, creating travel demand by “time-is-money” executives for the fastest, most-direct transport between origin and destination.

A related trend is developing in air freight. Global sourcing, selling, and just-in-time logistics require that producers receive and ship smaller quantities more frequently, quickly, and reliably over long distances, driving long-term growth for air freight. While about 20% of today’s manufactured goods cross borders, experts predict the volume will grow to 80% by 2020.

Responding to these trends, aircraft companies are engineering new aircraft that can operate economically on both long-range routes and shorter, point-topoint/quick turnaround routes. This work is leading to innovations in engines, airframe materials, and manufacturing methods. And new manufacturers are creating a new class of aircraft, the Very Light Jet (VLJ), which will usher in the era of the personal jet and air taxi. Designed for short-haul routes (1000 miles or less), VLJs can operate out of virtually any airfield, providing time-saving point-to-point access to thousands of locations not served by airlines today. The FAA expects 1600 VLJs to be flying in the US by 2010.

On the manufacturing side, aircraft manufacturers are investing in composite fabrication technologies, faster and more productive metalworking equipment, lean manufacturing methods, and greater application of automation. They are also more widely outsourcing component production, while specifying and qualifying the machinery and processes to be used.

Glegalization is bringing sweeping changes in airline operations, aircraft design, and aircraft manufacturing.

Boeing leads the way on composite fuselage construction with the new 787 Dreamliner, the first commercial aircraft with composite fuselage, wing, and tail construction. The Dreamliner replaces millions of parts joined by armies of assemblers with large, prefabricated sections produced on automated CNC composite lay-up machines. Programmable, near-net-shape layup optimizes structural integrity, reduces material waste as much as 65%, and minimizes the need for subsequent machining and hand finishing. Composites will reduce weight and fuel consumption by nearly 20%, Boeing figures, while delivering best-in-class comfort and useable passenger space. Machinery makers are facilitating composite production with automated CNC fiber placement systems for large 3-D structures and tape layers for flat and low-profile structures.

Composite construction greatly expands the use of titanium. Especially used for large, critical monolithic components that join composite sections together, titanium offers a coefficient of expansion similar to that of composites, and avoids aluminum’s corrosion problems caused by galvanic reaction with carbon fibers.

On the metalcutting side, airframe and engine makers seek faster, more productive, and precise machining across the material spectrum from aluminum to steel, titanium, and tough nickel alloys such as Inconel. Linearmotor-drive profilers deliver the highest metal removal rates in aluminum processing -460 in.^sup 3^/min (0.3 m^sup 3^/min).

Manufacturers are upgrading to advanced multitasking and multiaxis machines that can integrate operations and machine multiple faces and complex geometries without refixturing.

Finally, world-class producers of aircraft and aircraft components are seeing the cost savings and accuracy improvements that can be achieved by utilizing manufacturing practices adopted from automotive manufacturing. Automated assembly, system integration, and testing are quickly gaining acceptance as necessary elements for productive aerospace manufacturing.

Certain long-time equipment makers now provide comprehensive machinery, process engineering, and integration capabilities on a global basis. This can speed and simplify the entry of new companies and nations into the aerospace industry.

Just as surely as time will always be money, the world will keep growing closer logisticalIy, riding the wings of aircraft design and manufacturing advances.

Boeing Repositions Military Cargo Plane

With the initial contract for production of C-17 cargo planes set to expire, the Air Force and Boeing Co. are lobbying hard for an extension of the program, including offering incentives to the nation’s commercial airlines and cargo handlers to buy the planes for use in military reserve operations.

The future of eventual commercialization of the C-17 hinges on the developments.

Boeing’s contract with the Pentagon calls for 120 of the $198 million planes to be delivered by 2003, and the Air Force is pushing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for an additional 60.

But to boost the program and keep Boeing’s 8,500 C-17 workers at its Long Beach facility employed through 2009, the company, with the support of the Air Force, is proposing a plan that would guarantee income to airlines if they purchase the state-of-the-art cargo plane.

That income would come from the airlines flying military missions under the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program.

“In order for Boeing to make the business case for it, we would have to have a firm order (from commercial airlines) for at least 10 (C-17) airplanes,” said Larry Whitley, communications director for Boeing’s aircraft and missiles sector. “That could be from one service provider (airline), or several.”

Traditionally, commercial airlines sign annual contracts to be part of the reserve fleet. The airlines in the program usually are called on to transport military personnel and small cargo on commercial planes. Commercial pilots might be used as a last resort for wartime missions, as was the case when they flew the bulk of the U.S. troops to the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War.

Government contracts assured

But under the new proposals by the Air Force and Boeing, cargo plane owners would be assured a yet-to-be-determined amount of government contracts hauling tanks, military automobiles, helicopters and Navy ship parts. This would ensure profitability until the commercial cargo market alone becomes sufficiently robust to support continuation of the C-17s, which are to be called BC-l7Xs under civilian ownership.

“Clearly, if Boeing sells more C-17s, it’s great for Long Beach,” said Jon Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc., an aerospace research and investment firm. “The Air Force is trying to use creative financing to cover the cost of potential future C-17 orders that they have. The greater the volume, the more profitability (for Boeing) in the back end of the program. Every one you make, you can do it a little cheaper because you learned from your mistakes. This (C-17) project started out very slow and has won a lot of believers, It’s turned into a good airplane.”

The C-17 has indeed come a long way since design and development problems stalled the program. Boeing signed its first C-17 contract with the Pentagon in 1988, but did not deliver the first plane until 1993.

The stripped-down C-17 sold to commercial carriers would have some of the technology and military hardware removed, dropping the per-plane cost from the current $198 million to the $150 million-to-$ 180 million range.

Airlines to be contacted

Next month, Boeing plans to send out requests for proposals to the 34 commercial airlines and cargo handlers in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program. Its goal is to generate orders for at least 10 more C-17s, which would potentially generate more than $1.5 billion in new revenues. And that infusion would help ensure that the Air Force will continue to get its cargo-hauling needs met.

“The C-17 has become the workhorse for the strategic airlift fleet,” said Lt. Col. Tom LaRock, spokesman for the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, which oversees the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. “It’s the only plane we have that can deliver outsized cargo to austere locations.”

In the changeover to a commercial plane, Boeing would likely remove the aerial refueling, airdrop and multiple flight control and defense from the aircraft.

What would remain is a plane that has a maximum takeoff weight of 585,000 pounds, and can carry 169,000 pounds of cargo traveling at 450 miles per hour. It can also land on dirt and other undeveloped runways that are as short as 3,000 feet.

None of the existing C-17s are being used in the current reserve fleet. Instead, commercial airlines are using reconfigured passenger planes to transport cargo on government-contracted flights.

The commercialization of the C-17 could further be helped by the growing demand for the transportation of heavy oil refinery, power generation and construction equipment that would not fit on a commercial plane, aerospace experts said.

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Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd may build a second plant for components for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

According to the Nihon Keizai business newspaper, the company is considering the move in view of the solid orders for the aircraft. A second plant could be built by the fiscal year 2008/09.

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Boeing Co, the US aircraft manufacturer, has said that it has signed contracts with Chinese companies to supply parts until 2021.

According to Boeing the contracts are worth an estimated USD600m. Some of the parts supplied will be for the new 787 aircraft and the suppliers include Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co Ltd and Hafei Aviation Industry Co Ltd, Reuters reported.

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A lawsuit has been filed against Boeing by three senior employees.

The employees claim that the aircraft manufacturer ignored numerous defective parts used in the construction of aircraft. According to the lawsuit, which was brought in March on behalf of the US government, Boeing allegedly ignored 2,000 defective parts that were used in 32 aircraft.

The three employees from the commercial aircraft division in Wichita said that the parts came from Ducommun Inc, California.

The lawsuit was made public last week as the US Justice Department completed an investigation into the case, The Associated Press reported. According to a court filing the allegedly defective parts were used for aircraft delivered to the US Air Force and Navy as well as to foreign military forces, including those of Australia, Italy, Japan and Turkey.

It was also reported that the lawsuit contends that the parts did not pass minimum Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements, and they were allegedly used on 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s that were made at the plant in Wichita and delivered from March 1998 through to November 2004.

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Ten pieces of wreckage have been found that clearly belong to the missing Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that disappeared on 1 January, according to Eddy Suyanto, the official heading the search.

The biggest part was found by a fisherman and seemed to be a tail stabiliser. Other parts that have been found include pieces of a wing, a life vest and seat tables. These items were recovered by residents, military and police both in the sea and on beaches near the town of Pare Pare, located on the west coast of Sulawesi island.

The Adam Air aircraft was on its way from Surabaya in eastern Java to Manado in northern Sulawesi when it disappeared in bad weather.

Search and rescue official Immal Yuhani has also said that two flight attendant seats were found on a beach, while Genot Hardianto, the chief of police at Pare Pare, said an ID card, a flare and a headrest had been found, Reuters reported.

According to Wahyu Supriantono, the chief of the Indonesian Plane Technicians group, the aircraft seemed to have crashed into the sea since a mid-air explosion would have sent fragments spreading over a wider area.

The Aircraft Research Association (ARA) in Bedford, England, is an independent, nonprofit research and development organization, originally set up in 1952 as a wind tunnel test center for the aircraft industry in the United Kingdom. Today, it provides confidential services in aerodynamic-related technologies for U.K. aircraft and aero engine industries, MoD and major aerospace firms from mainland Europe, the United States and further afield. The 150-strong company’s main strength lies in its ability to offer a range of aerodynamic services, including computational fluid dynamics to develop aerodynamic lines, the design and manufacture of scale aircraft models for wind tunnel testing and in-depth analysis of how these models actually perform. Models can be tested in their transonic wind tunnel at speeds from Mach 0.2 to 1.4.

ARA’s manufacturing operations are centered firmly around three large bed-type CNC mills (including one twin-spindle model), which produce these complex 3D model forms from solid. All these machines have recently been upgraded in terms of controls and drives and have had high speed heads fitted to optimize their performance.

Looking to further modernize its operations, the organization recently purchased machining Strategist CAM software from NC Graphics (Zionsville, Indiana). ARA was looking at a number of other CAM systems and had actually tried and tested several. So the final decision to purchase the software was based on the results of its capability to program a real job–a 300 m M2 section of a wing root that involved complex 3D forms and blended curved surfaces. This was completed at NC Graphics’ Cambridge, England, headquarters.

Working from an imported IGES file, the wing root form was programmed in less than 15 minutes and roughed out in just 3.5 hours. ARA watched the work in progress and was impressed, as it would have taken almost 2 days to program and rough out this component. During a further trial on-site at ARA, second-stage programming and machining of a special cryogenic model convinced Richard Sale, ARA’s project manager of design and manufacture, and his engineering team that machining Start egist was the CAM system ARA needed to streamline manufacturing routines.

Now that machining Strategist is being used at ARA to program the complex tool paths required for roughing of 1/30th scale models of various aircraft for wind tunnel testing, this CAM system has produced major benefits in terms of reduced programming time, higher metal removal, shorter lead times and extended tool life. Looking at specific components, the new system has already enabled ARA to reduce the time it takes to produce a pair of aircraft wings, (carved out of solid 1 m by 400 mm by 100 mm thick steel billets), from 14 to just 8 weeks. Metal removal rates have more than doubled, as machining is now carried out with 35 mm diameter Depo-style tooling at a depth of cut of 2 mm (formerly 1 mm) and a feed rate of 1 m/min. (formerly 750 mm/mm.). These forms are roughed out to within 1.2 mm of the final profile, compared with the previous allowance of 3 mm plus, reducing the amount of finishing work required.

Mr. Sale outlines the differences that machining Strategist has made to production operations. “Brought in to complement our existing CAM software, the system has had a big impact on the way we do things here now, releasing us from the ties of programming and machining routines, which were historically built up over the years. For we now have a new and more flexible way of programming such work, and this has enabled us to improve the efficiency with which we can rough out the complex 3D model forms required. Short learning curves have also proved to be a feature of the system, too.”

Quantifying the advantages of the new CAM system is not that straightforward, as each aircraft model is a one-off, presenting its own particular problems. However, Mr. Sale summed up the benefits of the software in general terms. “On average, we have cut the time it takes to generate tool paths by a factor of three. Machining cycles are now around 20 percent faster, tool life has been significantly extended and there is far less wear and tear on our CNC machines.”

Combined with other setup and workholding improvements, the introduction of machining Strategist will eventually help reduce typical lead times from 21 to about 14 weeks. At present, the company is about half way toward meeting this target. Although machining Strategist has only been in action at ARA for a short period of time, it has already improved the association’s capability, speed and efficiency on a range of different components. Such has been the software’s all-round performance that the first two systems have already paid for themselves.